[Traguar]

Charger fitted and wired but shows orange cones light in unit when plugged into ampera. Brick works so car OK - anyone know what the issue might be?

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Is it a POLAR or British gas unit? They have a key switch to activate it. Have you turned the key?

Just a thought...

 

[Paul]

Edited the thread title to hopefully attract more help than just "help".

 

[Traguar]

thanks - I was clutching at straws while the sparkie was still here.
Rolec wallpod has been installed on separate circuit from the electric meter - it show green led on the module marked zero carbon world - when plugged into the ampera this light goes orange with the word "cons" written next to it. The car does not show any lights at all. I have a 3 pin plug installed on the same circuit so tried the brick - car "handshakes" fine with the orange dash light then goes green and charges. We suspect something in the charger but have no idea what.

 

[hopbackguy]

@Traguar , can you confirm... Is the charger unit a '32A' one? And is the cable you're using rated for 32A or 16A?

 

[Traguar]

It was sold as a 16A tethered charger - but I had all the wiring done at 32a for future upgrades

 

[hopbackguy]

That's good. It's just that I took a look back at this forum and in the past there was a case of a Rolec charger that used the Mainpine EPC 32A (I'm guessing that's the bit you says has 'zcw' on it) , and the cable was a 16A cable....it didn't want to charge. But yours is the 'right' way round. In previous cases like this, suggestions have included an earthing anomaly, voltage drop or component fault..

 

[Traguar]

Looking around at pictures of the inside of one of these I cannot find anything quite like it - ZCW controller and contactor I recognize but i have a "black box" on leads floating around in the unit that I'm not seeing.
charger unit is model EVWP1090

 

[Lee Howard]

Can you put a picture up? The ZeroCarbonWorld wallpods all had Mainpine EPCs in them, but the LED should never be orange... and it should never be steady-red with an Ampera... and the LED doesn't start-out as green, either. Can you describe the LED indication from the time the wallpod is powered-on until the time the malfunction occurs?

 

[Traguar]

hmm, will get a pic as soon as but likely Friday. LED cannot be seen with the cover on, but with it off it's a narrow unit next to the contactors with 4 led on it - green, blue, orange and red. when power is applied the green lights up - when plugged into the car the orange (marked cons) one lights - yet to see blue or red (marked fault). I also have this black box about the size of a cigarette packet loose in there with wires coming in and 2 wires going out.
Nothing marked mainpine I could see just this unit with just enough space to have ZeroCarbonWorld on it with four (separate) led and labels for each of them.

 

[Lee Howard]

The Mainpine EPC only has one LED. @Cara Naden does this ring any bells to you?

 

[Traguar]

well I snuck back down to the car park after midnight and took it apart with my wife holding the torch as I'll not have time again - as I was looking on earlier I misstook the number of leds - there is 1 but 4 colours

 

[Lee Howard]

That's a rather old unit. I'm guessing that it sat on someone's shelf for nearly three years now.

If you can still reject the unit as defective please do so. I suspect that something is wrong with that controller (the ZeroCarbonWorld component).

If you cannot reject the unit, then it would be possible to replace the ZCW controller with a new Mainpine EPC. However, you'd need to hire a qualified electrician to do that. @Cara Naden could give you recommendations.

Hopefully you can simply reject this entire wallpod as defective and get a new one.

 

[Traguar]

that was kind of my thinking too. I have asked for a partial refund to get a new controller as it would be more work to remove and replace the wallchargers than just the component (requiring an electrician anyway). The only other units available cost about the same in price difference as the controller alone and I have to pay return postage on the defective charger (sucks). I'll update the thread as things happen as I might need guidance to replace old controller (12v) with new (240) - I'm sure a sparkie can do it but with my luck...

 

[Buzby]

My Rolec internals looked like this on install (a 32a version)

 

[hopbackguy]

well I snuck back down to the car park after midnight and took it apart with my wife holding the torch as I'll not have time again - as I was looking on earlier I misstook the number of leds - there is 1 but 4 colours

Ah nice pics... So at a guess 'CON' probably means 'connected' (I.e. To the car) and it should change to green next..but it isn't.

 

[Traguar]

OK - I've been sent another unit but it's exactly the same inside. This seems not to work either. The sparkie has tested all the connections and is satisfied that power, earth etc are all what they should be - I have a 3 pin socket on the same circuit that works fine with the brick and the car works fine with type 2 public stations, so as far as I can see the car and power supply check out fine.
I don't know a huge amount about home electrics so please don't ask for stuff only a apsrkie would know cos I won't be able to answer! What I do know is the red fault light does not show on either charger and the rest is as above. Don't know where to go from here really
I think at this point I just want my money back and go elsewhere, possibly a wall-mounted brick as I know this works, but what would be my chances of this through ebay given that I'm trying to say 2 chargers are faulty and my end is not?

 

[Buzby]

Can we go back to basics. When the Rolec is powered, the front indicator shows what colour? Hopefully flashing blue?

 

[Traguar]

no. There is no front led - it's on the protocol controller and it shows green. Where plugged into the car it goes orange and stays there.

 

[Buzby]

This IS a Rolec Wallpod? These all come with a multi aspect chrome button that provides basic connectivity information.